Ian Chan

The Ice Cube

The Ice Cube is a narrative, 2D rotoscope animation focused on the theme of the Greenhouse Effect. The animation explores how the Greenhouse Effect influences the environment and affects relationships between people. The story depicts two characters who plan to steal a water purifying device called the Ice Cube. This device symbolizes human kind’s hope for survival and represents the competition for clean resources between people. The work is inspired by post-apocalyptic movies like The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and combat animation from Japanese anime like Jujutsu Kaisen (2020).

“The Ice Cube is a rotoscope, 2D animation focused on the theme of the Greenhouse Effect and its influence on the Earth and the relationship between its inhabitants. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where two main characters are trying to steal a water purifying device, called the Ice Cube, that is stored in a safe place called Anti-Greenhouse. The Ice Cube represents humankind’s hope for survival and the increasing competition for clean resources. The goal for this animation is to explore how the Greenhouse Effect influences the Earth’s environment and human society. As a HongKongese, the environmental difference between Toronto and my hometown were my main source of inspiration for The Ice Cube. One main difference between the two is that in Hong Kong it never snows. The first time I saw snow in my life was at the end of October, 2015. In 2021, not a single drop of snow appeared in the sky until December. As a person who loves and longs for snow, this tiny environmental change has reminded me of the issue of the Greenhouse Effect, so I decided to create a project that focused on this theme, one that not only affects me but everyone. Rising average temperatures on the Earth is the main cause of this issue, however, this has a knock-on effect on the environment. Increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and acidity in lakes and oceans are examples of effects from the Greenhouse Effect. Hand-drawn animation is a traditional style of animation. Artists will combine each frame of drawings orderly to create an illusion of moving pictures. This style was used in traditional cartoons like Disney’s. I finished everything on the IPad where I had created my characters and backgrounds in Procreate; while I had created the animation using Callipeg. The animation was about 1 minute 53 seconds long. In addition to the technique I had used to animate, the entire sequence of animation was actually created by rotoscoping live action. The tone of the animation is both serious and humorous as it focuses on the influences of a contemporary issue, however, the live action, or character’s movement is a bit comical. Depending on the identity of different audiences, the work could engage them socially or politically. The Ice Cube focuses on an environmental issue that affects everyone and it also suggests the fight for clean resources between two sides of people. I was heavily influenced by post-apocalyptic movies like The Day after tomorrow, and the combat animation from Japanese anime, like Naruto, Attack on Titan and Jujutsu Kaisen. So I decided to use a fight scene as the climax in my animation to present the scramble between two sides of people. The Ice Cube presents how the Greenhouse Effect influenced the environment of Earth and relationships between people through post-apocalyptic background setting and scramble between people.”